Sergeant (The United Federation Marine Corps Book 2) (22 page)

“OK, Staff Sergeant, you’ve got them. We’ll meet you at the new site in about four hours,” Lieutenant Nidish
chii’ told SSgt Hecs.

The platoon commander hadn’t liked where the platoon had formed up and wanted to move them to something more defensible. There was one piece of high ground that looked promising, but it was too close to where the second group of French w
as located. Instead, the lieutenant had selected another small rise about 20 k from their present position. It was covered in trees, so it was not much better in terms of visibility, but any advantage had to be taken.

While the platoon was moving, the same
group that had reconned the Legion platoon was going to confirm that the second group of French were actually sailors and not combat troops. This was to be a quick recon. The lieutenant didn’t want to split his forces, but he had to make sure he understood just what they faced.

Keiji took point. Normally, the HGL gunner would be second in the movement as the HGL
itself was not as quick a weapon to deploy as the normal M114, but if they were to face combat-suited legionnaires, then the HGL gave the Marines their best chance to take one of them out.

Reports on the effectiveness of the armor on the Legion R-3s w
ere not conclusive at best, contradictory at worst. The armor was interspaced with circuits that created intense fields whereas the PICS had two field generators that created a sort of bubble around the Marines. The consensus was that the circuit method of generation made for a more effective shielding, particularly against energy weapons.

How effective it was against KE weapons, on the other hand, was not as well known. Some analysts felt that the lighter, more flexible armor of the R-3 was better against physical KE rounds as well. Others felt i
t gave an advantage in surviving the effects of concussive shock waves. But still others felt the armor was too light and not strong enough to match the older techno PICS in as far as brute ability to withstand KE strikes.

The PICS M114 was a great weapon against softer targets. It fired a stream of
8mm hypervelocity darts that would pierce ordinary body armor without too much of a problem. However, it would not pierce a PICS. A lucky shot might damage sensors or weapons, but it would not make it through the armor of a PICS to the Marine inside. With that in mind, the Marines could not count on it to be able to take down a legionnaire in an R-3.

When the platoon had been loaded onto the shuttle, they had been given a standard combat load, not one designed to take on other combat-suited soldiers. This
had been rather shortsighted given that the Legion possessed combat suits. Since even before the War of the Far Reaches, Marines hadn’t faced anyone who had combat suits in their forces, and tactics had evolved without taking combat suits into much consideration. Always fighting the last war, however, was a good way to lose the next one.

With their weapons mix, the Marines had a few weapons that could be effective against a legionnaire in an R-3. The HGL might
need multiple hits, but it could work. Their shoulder rocket launchers, with the 7.5cm rockets should be effective. Each Marine, though, had a total of only 12 rockets, six anti-personnel and six anti-armor, and the box could not be reloaded in the field. They had the M229, which would undoubtedly mess up a legionnaire’s day, and if they could figure out how to use it, the shuttle’s 25mm gun.

Each
PICS also had its plasma gun. In an atmosphere, the plasma dispersed quickly, so the distance had to be close, and they took up a huge amount of energy. A fully-charged PICS could maybe fire three times before the suit went dead. With the R-3’s effectiveness against energy weapons, and the fact that they had no way to recharge the PICS until back on the ship, those were pretty much a non-starter against the Legion troops.

On the other side of the battlefield, the legionnaires had weapons that could take
out a PICS. The weapons of an R-3 remained inside the skin of the suit until fired. This helped with the stealth techno that made the R-3s so hard to acquire with the Marine sensors. Their own version of the hypervelocity darts wouldn’t do much against a PICS, but instead of a plasma gun, they had a hadron gun, miniaturized enough to carry. It was far more efficient than a plasma gun, and it could probably fire for at least a minute, if the Federation math was accurate. It wasn’t as powerful as a ship-based hadron cannon, but it didn’t have to be. The Marines had been briefed that the R=3’s hadron gun would probably take from eight to twelve seconds to “burn” through the PICS’ shields.

The legionnaires also had larger KE weapons, and the recording from Ryck’s dragonfly revealed what looked to be a portable field gun. Other than that, though, the Marines didn’t know
with what the Legion platoon was equipped.

Ryck scanned his display as they moved through the trees.
He had to watch where he was going, but still focus on his display, looking for the slightest aberration that might indicate a legionnaire was out there. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he marveled at the trees, the spongy surface of the ground. They didn’t have forests on Prophesy where he grew up. They didn’t have forests like this on Tarawa, either, nor on Alexander, where the division was based.

The lieutenant stopped them several times to stand and scan, but they still made good time to their rally point. All was quiet.
SSgt Hecs reported in from the new position, and LCpl Justice with the WIA and AT3 Fodor, the shuttle crewchief, reported in as well. The legionnaires were nowhere on anyone’s scanners.

At least the French crew w
as showing up on their sensors, about 500 meters ahead of the small recon force. Ryck had taken one of Popo’s dragonflies, so he was back up to two. It seemed to synch all right to his PICS, but he decided to launch his remaining original drone.

This far back and in the forest, the lieutenant kept them standing, which was easier
. With the others providing security, Ryck was able to concentrate on his dragonfly. He slowed it down as it approached the French, sending it higher into the canopy. This close, it could pick up 15 separate heat signatures. Ryck edged it forward, and the view suddenly opened up to a small clearing. It looked like a tree had fallen, leaving a crease in the otherwise uninterrupted forest.

Fifteen men and women, all sailors were in the clearing, three lying together
seemingly injured. Several lean-tos had been built from branches and deadfall, and another few sailors were sitting under them. Ryck counted two sailors, armed with the small French slurp guns, standing guard at either end of the clearing. The rest were engaged in small tasks. There was no sign of heavy weaponry of any kind, either energy or KE.

The little dragonfly had basic sensors, but the PICS, in particular the lieutenant’s PICS-C, had much more sophisticated ones, so after the preliminary scan, the Marines moved forward. They walked their PICS as
“stealthily” as they could, which was somewhat of an oxymoron when describing movement in a PICS. Ryck doubted that the sailors had much in the way of sensors, but they had their eyeballs and ears, and they would be able to see and hear a PICS coming through the trees.

At 200 meters out, the lieutenant stopped them. Ryck had the platoon commander’s data feed slaved, so he could see the readout. The dragonfly had gotten most of the info already. The
French were what they seemed to be: sailors, not legionnaires.

“What do we do?” Ryck asked the lieutenant.

Their mission was still intact. They were to accept a surrender or destroy anyone who refused to give up. There were 15 French combatants up ahead, and with seven PICS Marines, they would stand no chance.

Ryck knew their orders, but he had no stomach to launch an attack. These were shipwreck survivors, in his mind, and the treaties were clear as to how they should be
treated. The fact that the two forces were at war, the fact that they were armed, didn’t make a difference to him. Ryck didn’t know, though, how anal the lieutenant would be with regards to their orders. And if the lieutenant ordered an assault, he would obey.

“They’re no threat to us,” Lieutenant
Nidishchii’ said. “Let’s leave your dragonfly to watch over them, but let’s leave them be. Once we’ve dealt with the legionnaires, then we can take the crew’s surrender.”

That was a relief to Ryck. He turned to the lieutenant just
as a flicker appeared in the platoon commander’s scan feed. An amber warning icon flashed on Ryck’s display, indicating an anomaly, but not the red icon of a positive threat identification.

Both Ryck and the lieutenant turned just as a flash illuminated the trees to their right. Their face shields lit up as their PICS identified a Gazelle, the small, man-packed anti-armor missile
hurtling at them. From only 100 meters out, barely within arming range, they had no chance. This missile was designed to take out tanks.

Their AIs flashed on each Marine’s fractured arrays, but that didn’t matter. The missile knew where they were and had locked into their position. Ryck started to lurch to the side, knowing there was not enough time. There was a bigger flash as the missile hit—Prifit.

The missile’s exhaust made a cloud from which two legionnaires emerged. The Marines’ scans started pulling in data points, but the two were right there in front of them, in plain sight. To Ryck’s left, Keiji started pouring his grenades at the legionnaire closest to him. Ryck’s first instinct was to open fire with his M114, but he pulled that back and toggled his rocket launcher.

Before he could fire,
his alarms screamed as a hadron beam touched him. Immediately his shielding gauge popped up on his display and started to give the numbers as his shield began to disintegrate. Ryck jumped to his right, and his alarms turned off. The legionnaire was targeting the lieutenant, and Ryck had only been caught in a side lobe.

He started to turn back around to take the legionnaire under fire, but to his amazement, Lt.
Nidishchii’ was running, not away, but right at the legionnaire firing at him.

Ryck’s display
registered an explosion on the arm of the second legionnaire, but he was more focused on the one firing at his platoon commander. He started to fire his rockets, but with the lieutenant between them, he couldn’t. He ran to his right further to get a clear line of fire.

At about 50 meters, the lieutenant started firing his rockets, bam,
bam, one after the other. The air around him started to glow as his shields approached failure, but he didn’t stop.

The anti-armor rockets had limited self-guidance towards metallic objects, but the R-3 wasn’t made
of metal. The lieutenant was firing his rockets from the hip while running. Each rocket, though, hit the chest of the legionnaire. When the first one hit, Ryck could see the armor actually ripple. When the second one hit an instant later, the rippled became more pronounced.

The lieutenant didn’t stop running forward or firing. The third rocket hit in the
legionnaire in same spot, but the fourth went over the man’s shoulder.

Ryck didn’t know how much time had elapsed since the lieutenant had been taken under fire.
Seven, eight seconds? His shield was a bright orange, a sure sign of imminent failure.

The lieutenant was o
nly 20 meters from the legionnaire, but he didn’t stop. Ryck aimed in on the soldier, who had taken a step back when faced with the charging Marine. Just as Ryck fired, the fifth, or maybe the sixth rocket fired by the lieutenant hit home, this time penetrating the R-3 and blowing a 10-centimeter hole in the R-3’s chest. Ryck’s rocket skimmed past the lieutenant’s head before slamming into the legionnaire’s shoulder, but his round was unnecessary. The legionnaire was dead, his R-3 trying to maintain a vertical aspect. Sparks flew out of it, and it slowly collapsed upon itself.

Ryck wheeled to face the other legionnaire, but he was retreating, barely visible through the trees.

“Lieutenant, are you OK?” he shouted into his mic.

There was no response, so Ryck ran forward as the lieutenant turned around.

Ryck shouted out his question again, but the lieutenant pointed at where his ear would be, then shook his head back and forth.

His shield was still glowing, a couple of centimeter cloud around him. It wasn’t glowing as brightly as before, but
with all that ionized air, it was affecting his comms.

He could see the lieutenant’s smile through his face shield, so Ryck knew he was OK. Ryck turned back to check on the others.

Prifit was on his back, and Ryck hoped for the best. Instead, he saw the worst, and that staggered him. The entire carapace section of Prifit’s PICS had been blown away. Above the shoulders, the PICS looked normal, as it did below the gut plate. Where Prifit’s chest had been though, was a bloody, mangled mess. The anti-armor round, designed to take out tanks, had passed right through his Marine.

Without power,
Prifit’s face shield was dark, and Ryck was relieved that he couldn’t see the lance corporal’s face for the moment. He had to prepare himself before he did that.

Ryck turned from Prifit and ordered
Keiji to provide security in the direction to which the other legionnaire had fled while he went to checked over the dead soldier. The legionnaire was slouched on the dirt in a way a PICS could not. The armor of the R-3, while not pliable, was not as rigid as it was when the man was firing at the lieutenant. From reading published articles in various journals and blogs, Ryck knew the R-3 armor was powered, but it looked like that power gave the suit at least some degree of support as well. Ryck reached out with his foot and gave the legionnaire a shove, knocking him flat to the ground. The feedback sensors let Ryck know the R-3 was still a pretty heavy piece of gear, probably right at the 825kg reported in the general specs.